FERMENTATIVE PARAMETERS AND NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF OAT SILAGE WITH SUNFLOWERS AND CORN GRAINS

Abstract

One of the primary goals of livestock producers is to maintain forage quality at adequate levels that allow obtaining a good profit in milk production. A supplementation strategy could be silage with sources of fat and soluble carbohydrates that improve forage quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the fermentative and nutritional quality of oat silage with ground corn and sunflower grain (SG) using three combinations of oat forage and ground corn (100-0, 95-5, 90-10) with three levels of sunflower grain (0, 5 and 10 %). The pH, N-NH₃, lactic acid, dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fat (CF), non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), in vitro digestibility of dry matter (IVDDM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and lignin were evaluated in triplicate using 27 micro-silos. No significant Combination × SG level interaction was observed (P > 0.05). DM content was higher in T2 whereas CP concentration was lower in T6 (95-5-10) (P ≤ 0.05). The Combination × SG level interaction was significant for CF, ADF, lignin and IVDMD (P ≤ 0.05); however, such interaction was non-significant for NDF, pH, N-NH₃ and lactic acid (P > 0.05). The inclusion of SG when combined with oat forage and ground corn increases the nutritional value of the oat silage but does not improve the fermentative quality of the forage.